56-659: Codex Laudianus , designated by E or 08 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), α 1001 ( von Soden ), called Laudianus after the former owner, Archbishop William Laud . It is a diglot Latin — Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament , palaeographically assigned to the 6th century. The manuscript contains the Acts of the Apostles . The manuscript is a diglot , with Greek and Latin in parallel columns on
112-711: A "golden age" of Anglo-Saxon scholarship: Theodore also taught sacred music, introduced various texts, knowledge of Eastern saints, and may even have been responsible for the introduction of the Litany of the Saints , a major liturgical innovation, into the West. Some of his thoughts are accessible in the Biblical Commentaries, notes compiled by his students at the Canterbury School. Of immense interest
168-595: A complex cataloging system for manuscripts in 1902–1910. He grouped the manuscripts based on content, assigning them a Greek prefix: δ for the complete New Testament, ε for the Gospels, and α for the remaining parts. This grouping was flawed because some manuscripts grouped in δ did not contain Revelation, and many manuscripts grouped in α contained either the general epistles or the Pauline epistles, but not both. After
224-402: A distinctive style of even, capital letters called book-hand. Less formal writing consisted of cursive letters which could be written quickly. Another way of dividing handwriting is between uncial script (or majuscule) and minuscule . The uncial letters were a consistent height between the baseline and the cap height, while the minuscule letters had ascenders and descenders that moved past
280-460: A prefix of P , often written in blackletter script ( 𝔓 ), with a superscript numeral. The uncials were given a prefix of the number 0, and the established letters for the major manuscripts were retained for redundancy ( e.g. Codex Claromontanus is assigned both 06 and D ). The minuscules were given plain numbers, and the lectionaries were prefixed with l often written in script ( ℓ ). Kurt Aland continued Gregory's cataloging work through
336-455: A range of 10 to over 100 years. Similarly, dates established by paleography can present a range of 25 to over 125 years. The earliest manuscript of a New Testament text is a business-card-sized fragment from the Gospel of John , Rylands Library Papyrus P52 , which may be as early as the first half of the 2nd century. The first complete copies of single New Testament books appear around 200, and
392-822: A school in Canterbury. Theodore's life can be divided into the time before his arrival in Britain as Archbishop of Canterbury, and his archiepiscopate. Until recently, scholarship on Theodore had focused on only the latter period since it is attested in Bede 's Ecclesiastical History of the English ( c 731), and also in Stephen of Ripon 's Vita Sancti Wilfrithi (early 700s), whereas no source directly mentions Theodore's earlier activities. However, Bernard Bischoff and Michael Lapidge reconstructed his earlier life based on
448-409: A single complete work and because each manuscript had small errors. In the 18th century, Johann Jakob Wettstein was one of the first biblical scholars to start cataloging biblical manuscripts. He divided the manuscripts based on the writing used ( uncial , minuscule) or format ( lectionaries ) and based on content ( Gospels , Pauline letters , Acts + General epistles , and Revelation ). He assigned
504-740: A study of texts produced by his Canterbury School. Theodore was of Greek descent, born in Tarsus in Cilicia , a Greek-speaking diocese of the Byzantine Empire . Theodore's childhood saw devastating wars between Byzantium and the Persian Sassanid Empire , which resulted in the capture of Antioch , Damascus , and Jerusalem in 613–614. Persian forces captured Tarsus when Theodore was 11 or 12 years old, and evidence exists that Theodore had experience of Persian culture. It
560-413: A text can sometimes find the original and corrections found in certain manuscripts. In the 6th century, a special room devoted to the practice of manuscript writing and illumination called the scriptorium came into use, typically inside medieval European monasteries. Sometimes a group of scribes would make copies at the same time as one individual read from the text. An important issue with manuscripts
616-660: Is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible . Biblical manuscripts vary in size from tiny scrolls containing individual verses of the Jewish scriptures (see Tefillin ) to huge polyglot codices (multi-lingual books) containing both the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the New Testament , as well as extracanonical works. The study of biblical manuscripts is important because handwritten copies of books can contain errors. Textual criticism attempts to reconstruct
SECTION 10
#1732766097299672-421: Is complete; many consist only of a single fragmented page. Beginning in the fourth century, parchment (also called vellum ) began to be a common medium for New Testament manuscripts. It wasn't until the twelfth century that paper (made from cotton or plant fibers) began to gain popularity in biblical manuscripts. Of the 476 non-Christian manuscripts dated to the second century, 97% of the manuscripts are in
728-511: Is most likely that he studied at Antioch , the historic home of a distinctive school of exegesis , of which he was a proponent. Theodore also knew Syriac culture, language and literature , and may even have travelled to Edessa . The Syriac Acts of Saint Milus of Persia , which was incorporated into the Old English Martyrology , was probably brought to England by Theodore. Though a Greek could live under Persian rule,
784-472: Is preservation. The earliest New Testament manuscripts were written on papyrus , made from a reed that grew abundantly in the Nile Delta . This tradition continued as late as the 8th century. Papyrus eventually becomes brittle and deteriorates with age. The dry climate of Egypt allowed some papyrus manuscripts to be partially preserved, but, with the exception of 𝔓 , no New Testament papyrus manuscript
840-428: Is still located (shelfmark: MS. Laud Gr. 35). Thomas Hearne published a transcription of its text in 1715, but not a very good one. This was followed by a transcription done by Hansell in 1864, and then by Constantin von Tischendorf in 1870. The manuscript was examined by Johann Jakob Griesbach , Ropes, Motzo, Poole, Clark, Lagrange, and Walther. Biblical manuscript#Gregory-Aland A biblical manuscript
896-418: Is the system still in use today. Gregory divided the manuscripts into four groupings: papyri, uncials, minuscules, and lectionaries . This division is partially arbitrary. The first grouping is based on the physical material ( papyrus ) used in the manuscripts. The second two divisions are based on script: uncial and minuscule. The last grouping is based on content: lectionary. Most of the papyrus manuscripts and
952-520: Is the text, recently attributed to him, called Laterculus Malalianus . Overlooked for many years, it was rediscovered in the 1990s, and has since been shown to contain numerous interesting elements reflecting Theodore's trans-Mediterranean formation. A record of the teaching of Theodore and Adrian is preserved in the Leiden Glossary . Pupils from the school at Canterbury were sent out as Benedictine abbots in southern England, disseminating
1008-775: Is written colonmetrically . The Greek text of this codex exhibits a mixture of text-types, usually the Byzantine , but there are many Western and some Alexandrian readings. According to Kurt Aland it agrees with the Byzantine text-type 36 times, and 21 times with the Byzantine when it has the same reading as the Alexandrian text. It agrees 22 times with the Alexandrian text against the Byzantine. It has 22 independent or distinctive readings ( Sonderlesarten ). Aland placed it in Category II . It contains Acts 8:37, as do
1064-539: The Anglo-Saxon Church to follow Rome, in 667, when Theodore was aged 66, the see of Canterbury happened to fall vacant. Wighard , the man chosen to fill the post, unexpectedly died. Wighard had been sent to Pope Vitalian by Ecgberht , king of Kent , and Oswy , king of Northumbria, for consecration as archbishop. Following Wighard's death, Theodore was chosen by Vitalian upon the recommendation of Hadrian (later abbot of St. Peter's, Canterbury ). Theodore
1120-586: The Muslim conquests , which reached Tarsus in 637, certainly drove Theodore from Tarsus; unless he fled even earlier, Theodore would have been 35 years old when he left his birthplace. Having returned to the Eastern Roman Empire, he studied in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople , including the subjects of astronomy, ecclesiastical computus (calculation of the date of Easter), astrology, medicine, Roman civil law, Greek rhetoric and philosophy, and
1176-663: The critical apparatus of the Novum Testamentum Graece , a series of abbreviations and prefixes designate different language versions (it for Old Latin, lowercase letters for individual Old Latin manuscripts, vg for Vulgate , lat for Latin, sy for Sinaitic Palimpsest , sy for Curetonian Gospels , sy for the Peshitta , co for Coptic, ac for Akhmimic, bo for Bohairic, sa for Sahidic, arm for Armenian, geo for Georgian, got for Gothic, aeth for Ethiopic, and slav for Old Church Slavonic). The original manuscripts of
SECTION 20
#17327660972991232-477: The 1950s and beyond. Because of this, the numbering system is often referred to as "Gregory-Aland numbers". The most recent manuscripts added to each grouping are 𝔓 , 0323 , 2928 , and ℓ 2463. Due to the cataloging heritage and because some manuscripts which were initially numbered separately were discovered to be from the same codex, there is some redundancy in the list (i.e. the Magdalen papyrus has both
1288-576: The Gospels and the Pauline Epistles. "Canon and codex go hand in hand in the sense that the adoption of a fixed canon could be more easily controlled and promulgated when the codex was the means of gathering together originally separate compositions." The handwriting found in New Testament manuscripts varies. One way of classifying handwriting is by formality: book-hand vs. cursive. More formal, literary Greek works were often written in
1344-575: The Greek prefix, von Soden assigned a numeral that roughly corresponded to a date (for example δ1–δ49 were from before the 10th century, δ150–δ249 for the 11th century). This system proved to be problematic when manuscripts were re-dated, or when more manuscripts were discovered than the number of spaces allocated to a certain century. Caspar René Gregory published another cataloging system in 1908 in Die griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments , which
1400-626: The Lord ) along with the manuscripts: Papyrus 74 , C* , D , Ψ , 33 , 36 , 453 , 945, 1739 , and 1891 . It was probably written in Sardinia , during the Byzantine occupation, and therefore after 534 ( terminus a quo ). It was written before 716 ( terminus ad quem ), as it was used by Beda Venerabilis in his Expositio Actuum Apostolorum Retractata . "It was brought to England probably by Theodore of Tarsus , Archbishop of Canterbury, in 668, or by Ceolfrid , Abbot of Wearmouth and Jarrow , in
1456-449: The New Testament books are not known to have survived. The autographs are believed to have been lost or destroyed a long time ago. What survives are copies of the original. Generally speaking, these copies were made centuries after the originals from other copies rather than from the autograph. Paleography , a science of dating manuscripts by typological analysis of their scripts, is the most precise and objective means known for determining
1512-525: The New Testament itself, was not suited to the limited space available on a single scroll; in contrast a codex could be expanded to hundreds of pages. On its own, however, length alone is an insufficient reason – after all, the Jewish scriptures would continue to be transmitted on scrolls for centuries to come. Scholars have argued that the codex was adopted as a product of the formation of the New Testament canon, allowing for specific collections of documents like
1568-491: The age of a manuscript. Script groups belong typologically to their generation; and changes can be noted with great accuracy over relatively short periods of time. Dating of manuscript material by a radiocarbon dating test requires that a small part of the material be destroyed in the process. Both radiocarbon and paleographical dating only give a range of possible dates, and it is still debated just how narrow this range might be. Dates established by radiocarbon dating can present
1624-574: The ancient world until the Middle Ages . One notable palimpsest is the Archimedes Palimpsest . When washing was no longer an option, the second choice was burning. Since the manuscripts contained the words of Christ, they were thought to have had a level of sanctity; burning them was considered more reverent than simply throwing them into a garbage pit, which occasionally happened (as in the case of Oxyrhynchus 840 ). The third option
1680-421: The baseline and cap height. Generally speaking, the majuscules are earlier than the minuscules, with a dividing line roughly in the 11th century. The earliest manuscripts had negligible punctuation and breathing marks. The manuscripts also lacked word spacing, so words, sentences, and paragraphs would be a continuous string of letters ( scriptio continua ), often with line breaks in the middle of words. Bookmaking
1736-463: The brother of King Ecgfrith of Northumbria , died in battle fighting against the Mercians. Theodore's intervention prevented the escalation of the war and resulted in peace between the two kingdoms, with King Æthelred of Mercia paying weregild compensation for Aelfwine's death. Theodore and Hadrian established a school in Canterbury, providing instruction in both Greek and Latin, resulting in
Codex Laudianus - Misplaced Pages Continue
1792-598: The curriculum of Theodore. Theodore called other synods, in September 680 at Hatfield, Hertfordshire , confirming English orthodoxy in the Monothelite controversy, and circa 684 at Twyford, near Alnwick in Northumbria. Lastly, a penitential composed under his direction is still extant. Theodore died in 690 at the age of 88, having held the archbishopric for twenty-two years. He was buried in Canterbury at
1848-1100: The earliest complete copy of the New Testament, the Codex Sinaiticus , dates to the 4th century. The following table lists the earliest extant manuscripts for the books of the New Testament . Book Earliest extant manuscripts Date Condition Matthew 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 c. 150 –300 (2nd–3rd century) Large fragments Mark 𝔓 , 𝔓 2nd–3rd century Large fragments Luke 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 c. 175 –250 (2nd–3rd century) Large fragments John 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 c. 125 –250 (2nd–3rd century) Large fragments Acts 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 , 𝔓 Early 3rd century Large fragments Romans Theodore of Tarsus Theodore of Tarsus ( Greek : Θεόδωρος Ταρσοῦ ; 602 – 19 September 690)
1904-1192: The earliest extant manuscripts of the Old Testament were in Greek, in manuscripts such as the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus . Out of the roughly 800 manuscripts found at Qumran, 220 are from the Tanakh. Every book of the Tanakh is represented except for the Book of Esther ; however, most are fragmentary. Notably, there are two scrolls of the Book of Isaiah , one complete ( 1QIs ), and one around 75% complete ( 1QIs ). These manuscripts generally date between 150 BCE to 70 CE. The New Testament has been preserved in more manuscripts than any other ancient work of literature, with over 5,800 complete or fragmented Greek manuscripts catalogued, 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages including Syriac , Slavic , Gothic , Ethiopic , Coptic , Nubian , and Armenian . The dates of these manuscripts range from c. 125 (the 𝔓 papyrus, oldest copy of John fragment) to
1960-665: The early part of the eighth century. It was probably deposited in one of the great monasteries in the north of England." It probably came to the continent with English missionaries in the 8th century and came into the possession of Hornbach Abbey in the Rhineland. In the Thirty Years' War , it came into the possession of William Laud , who donated the manuscript to the Bodleian Library in Oxford in 1636, where it
2016-425: The form and the presentation of a manuscript were typically customized to the aesthetic tastes of the buyer. The task of copying manuscripts was generally done by scribes who were trained professionals in the arts of writing and bookmaking. Scribes would work in difficult conditions, for up to 48 hours a week, with little pay beyond room and board. Some manuscripts were also proofread, and scholars closely examining
2072-459: The form of scrolls ; however, eight Christian manuscripts are codices . In fact, virtually all New Testament manuscripts are codices. The adaptation of the codex form in non-Christian text did not become dominant until the fourth and fifth centuries, showing a preference for that form amongst early Christians. The considerable length of some New Testament books (such as the Pauline epistles ), and
2128-573: The gospels. Starting in the fifth century, subject headings ( κεφαλαία ) were used. Manuscripts became more ornate over the centuries, which developed into a rich illuminated manuscript tradition, including the famous Irish Gospel Books , the Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow . Desiderius Erasmus compiled the first published edition of the Greek New Testament in 1516, basing his work on several manuscripts because he did not have
2184-524: The introduction of printing in Germany in the 15th century. Often, especially in monasteries, a manuscript cache was little more than a former manuscript recycling centre, where imperfect and incomplete copies of manuscripts were stored while the monastery or scriptorium decided what to do with them. There were several options. The first was to simply "wash" the manuscript and reuse it. Such reused manuscripts were called palimpsests and were very common in
2240-407: The lectionaries before the year 1000 are written in uncial script. There is some consistency in that the majority of the papyri are very early because parchment began to replace papyrus in the 4th century (although the latest papyri date to the 8th century). Similarly, the majority of the uncials date to before the 11th century, and the majority of the minuscules to after. Gregory assigned the papyri
2296-544: The letter B was also assigned to a later 10th-century manuscript of Revelation, thus creating confusion. Constantin von Tischendorf found one of the earliest, nearly complete copies of the Bible, Codex Sinaiticus , over a century after Wettstein's cataloging system was introduced. Because he felt the manuscript was so important, Von Tischendorf assigned it the Hebrew letter aleph (א). Eventually enough uncials were found that all
Codex Laudianus - Misplaced Pages Continue
2352-548: The letters in the Latin alphabet had been used, and scholars moved on to first the Greek alphabet , and eventually started reusing characters by adding a superscript . Confusion also existed in the minuscules, where up to seven different manuscripts could have the same number or a single manuscript of the complete New Testament could have 4 different numbers to describe the different content groupings. Hermann von Soden published
2408-519: The lines, possibly evidence that monastery scribes compared them to a master text. In addition, texts thought to be complete and correct but that had deteriorated from heavy usage or had missing folios would also be placed in the caches. Once in a cache, insects and humidity would often contribute to the continued deterioration of the documents. Complete and correctly copied texts would usually be immediately placed in use and so wore out fairly quickly, which required frequent recopying. Manuscript copying
2464-920: The manuscripts 323 , 453 , 945 , 1739 , 1891 , 2818 , and several others. Most other Greek manuscripts do not contain Acts 8:37 In Acts 12:25, the Latin text of the codex reads from Jerusalem to Antioch , along with 429 , 945, 1739 , p, syr, cop geo; The Majority Text reads εις Ιερουσαλημ ( to Jerusalem ); In Acts 16:10, it reads θεος along with P , Sinaiticus , Alexandrinus , Vaticanus , Ephraemi , 044, 33 , 81 , 181 , 326 , 630 , 945, 1739, ar, e, l, vg, cop, geo; other manuscripts read κυριος - D, P, 049 , 056 , 0142 , 88 , 104 , 330 , 436 , 451 , 614 , 629 , 1241, 1505, 1877, 2127, 2412, 2492, 2495, Byz, c, d, gig , syr, cop. In Acts 18:26, it reads την οδον του κυριου along with manuscripts 1505, 2495, and lectionary 598. In Acts 20:28 , it reads του κυριου ( of
2520-469: The numbers of 𝔓 and 𝔓 ). The majority of New Testament textual criticism deals with Greek manuscripts because the scholarly opinion is that the original books of the New Testament were written in Greek. The text of the New Testament is also found both translated in manuscripts of many different languages (called versions ) and quoted in manuscripts of the writings of the Church Fathers . In
2576-541: The original text of books, especially those published prior to the invention of the printing press . The Aleppo Codex ( c. 920 CE ) and Leningrad Codex ( c. 1008 CE ) were once the oldest known manuscripts of the Tanakh in Hebrew. In 1947, the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran pushed the manuscript history of the Tanakh back a millennium from such codices. Before this discovery,
2632-427: The regular convening of subsequent synods, marriage and prohibitions of consanguinity, and other matters. He also proposed subdividing the large diocese of Northumbria, a policy which brought him into conflict with Wilfrid , who had become Bishop of York in 664. Theodore deposed and expelled Wilfrid in 678, dividing his diocese in the aftermath. The conflict with Wilfrid was settled only in 686–687. In 679 Aelfwine ,
2688-452: The same page, with the Latin in the left-hand column. The codex contains 227 parchment leaves, sized 27 × 22 cm (10.6 × 8.7 in), with almost the complete text of the Book of Acts ( lacuna in 26:29-28:26). It is the earliest known manuscript to contain Acts 8:37 . The text is written in two columns per page, 24 and more lines per page. It is arranged in very short lines of only one to three words each. The text
2744-453: The uncials letters and minuscules and lectionaries numbers for each grouping of content, which resulted in manuscripts being assigned the same letter or number. For manuscripts that contained the whole New Testament, such as Codex Alexandrinus (A) and Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (C), the letters corresponded across content groupings. For significant early manuscripts such as Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209 (B), which did not contain Revelation,
2800-399: The use of the horoscope. At some time before the 660s, Theodore had travelled west to Rome, where he lived with a community of Eastern monks, probably at the monastery of St. Anastasius. At this time, in addition to his already profound Greek intellectual inheritance, he became learned in Latin literature, both sacred and secular. The Synod of Whitby (664) having confirmed the decision in
2856-623: Was Archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690. Theodore grew up in Tarsus , but fled to Constantinople after the Persian Empire conquered Tarsus and other cities. After studying there, he relocated to Rome and was later installed as the Archbishop of Canterbury on the orders of Pope Vitalian . Accounts of his life appear in two 8th-century texts. Theodore is best known for his reform of the English Church and establishment of
SECTION 50
#17327660972992912-402: Was an expensive endeavor, and one way to reduce the number of pages used was to save space. Another method employed was to abbreviate frequent words, such as the nomina sacra . Yet another method involved the palimpsest , a manuscript which recycled an older manuscript. Scholars using careful examination can sometimes determine what was originally written on the material of a document before it
2968-503: Was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury in Rome on 26 March 668, and sent to England with Hadrian, arriving on 27 May 669. Theodore conducted a survey of the English church, appointed various bishops to sees that had lain vacant for some time, and then called the Synod of Hertford (673) to institute reforms concerning the proper calculation of Easter , episcopal authority, itinerant monks,
3024-514: Was erased to make way for a new text (for example Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus and the Syriac Sinaiticus ). The original New Testament books did not have section headings or verse and chapter divisions . These were developed over the years as "helps for readers". The Eusebian Canons were an early system of division written in the margin of many manuscripts. The Eusebian Canons are a series of tables that grouped parallel stories among
3080-544: Was to leave them in what has become known as a manuscript gravesite. When scholars come across manuscript caches, such as at Saint Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai (the source of the Codex Sinaiticus ), or Saint Sabbas Monastery outside Bethlehem , they are finding not libraries but storehouses of rejected texts sometimes kept in boxes or back shelves in libraries due to space constraints. The texts were unacceptable because of their scribal errors and contain corrections inside
3136-430: Was very costly when it required a scribe's attention for extended periods so a manuscript might be made only when it was commissioned. The size of the parchment , script used, any illustrations (thus raising the effective cost) and whether it was one book or a collection of several would be determined by the one commissioning the work. Stocking extra copies would likely have been considered wasteful and unnecessary since
#298701